Mobile Conversion Rates VS Desktop – Why, What & How

Are your mobile users converting good enough?

This information is critical for every website owner to monitor.

There was a time when all website user statistics could be tracked based on visitors from one source. With the dependence on mobile devices, it has become a necessity to track mobile activity on your website and compare it to tablet and PC use -especially with respect to conversion rates.

You need to periodically track the conversion rates on each device that accesses your site. If mobile device conversion rates are significantly lower than desktop or tablet conversion rates, it may indicate a problem. Conversion rates are expected to be lower for businesses that require lengthy data entry or credit card information; but if the conversion goal is simply to obtain email addresses, then there shouldn’t be a discrepancy in conversion rates between mobile users and other devices.

From a recent report by Smart Insights it is clear that for e-commerce sites, mobile conversion rates are significantly lower. This happens while mobile usage for e-commerce is on the rise.

You should analyze each and every goal you have and segment the conversion rate by device to see if mobile conversion is significantly lower than desktop conversion. One simple way to do so is by using Zoom Analytics’ Segmentation. Just select the goal you wish to analyze (use the ClickWizard to define your goals), then segment by device. You will immediately see the conversion rate of each sub-segment for the selected goal. In the example below you can see that this particular website has significantly higher conversion among PC users for the goal ‘Contact’. Only 3% of mobile devices visitors had converted, while 8% of desktop visitors converted. This clearly indicates a problem with mobile devices that has to be further investigated and fixed.

Goal Conversion Rate By Device

It is extremely beneficial to analyze and segment your website visitors by device, so that you can work on the weaker medium (which will most likely be the mobile device segment). Since mobile conversion rates may be a struggle for many business owners, here are some useful points to keep in mind.

Key issues

• iOS doesn’t support Flash– Flash-based elements on your website will be lost for iOS users. This is unfortunate since it creates a barrier for iOS conversions.

• Website design consistency — try to choose or modify your design with mobile devices in mind. Always check your website from several mobile devices to determine that mobile users are viewing a true reflection of your website design. Using a responsive design does not mean everything will work perfectly well.

• Check for JavaScript issues. There might be different behavior on different browsers, devices or operating systems, as they all have an affect on how the code runs on the device. The more sophisticated the website code is, the higher the chances it won’t behave exactly the same in all environments.

• Website speed — Although your design may look okay on mobile or tablet devices, the response time may vary from PC to mobile. Mobile devices are much faster than they were a few years ago but they are still not comparable to desktops, performance-wise.

• Different software versions — In many cases, the software version of add-ons and plugins that users have on their devices can affect your website’s quality and vary from version to version, as much as it varies from device to device.

• Monitor device conversion rate over time. If you are using Zoom Analytics just select the ‘Trend’ view and you will see conversion rate over time for specific goal you’re analyzing.

What else can be done?

If you identified that mobile devices have lower conversion and there is nothing obvious you can do about it, you can offer them an incentive using a targeted campaign. You can use Zoom Analytics dynamic Greeting Bar to show a specific message or offer only to mobile device users. Sometimes a simple 5% discount coupon is enough. You can also suggest they leave their email and send them a link to their current spot in the conversion funnel. Then try and bring them back when they are using a desktop device by sending a link during working hours.